NCRA Involved in Introduction of Internet Captioning Bill
On June 26, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced H.R. 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009. NCRA, through its involvement in the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), has worked to get this bill re-introduced in the 111th Congress. This is the second year in a row that the coalition has successfully seen the legislation introduced.
If passed, this legislation would ensure that people who are deaf and hard of hearing have access to emerging Internet-based telecommunications and video programming technologies. The bill includes many new standards for these technologies, including standards that would directly impact captioners. The bill calls for all devices that receive and play back video programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow ready access to captioning and audio description. In addition, it would institute a meaningful FCC complaint process that holds the industry accountable for their accessibility obligations. Finally, it would extend closed captioning obligations to television-type video-programming distributed over the Internet.
For more information on the introduction of the bill, please visit the COAT Web site or view the COAT press release.
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Tech News
Technology Seminars at NCRA’s Annual Convention
Continuing education in the area of technology is always an important part of NCRA’s conventions. The Annual Convention at the Gaylord National Hotel, in the Washington, D.C., area is no exception. A special technology track of concurrent seminars is being offered to convention attendees. Seminars include such topics as Social Networking for Dummies; Gadgets, Gizmos and Devices; and What to Do When Your Realtime Goes South, as well as seminars sponsored by vendors where you will receive targeted education and training from various software, hardware and services vendors. A keystone of the convention is Expo 2009, a state-of-the-art equipment exposition where you will gain the knowledge you need to succeed in today’s technology-driven marketplace.
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Courtroom Technology: Potholes to Avoid
In Virginia, Fairfax courts have been putting on a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program for members of the Bar that offers up-close experience with the different forms of technology that are used in the court. Many classic tips and tricks have emerged during these sessions. These tips cover various aspects of courtroom technology including electronic evidence and using PowerPoint presentations during opening statements.
Courtroom Technology: Potholes to Avoid
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New Zealand Court Reporting Goes Electronic
Dunedin court in New Zealand has installed an FTR digital recording system. Rather than being present in court, court reporters listen to the digital recording in an office in the same building and transcribe the proceedings. A transcript is sent to a computer in the courtroom every thirty seconds. If in-house court reporters are not available to produce transcripts, the information can be sent to service centers at other locations where they would be transcribed and sent to the courtroom printer.
New Zealand Court Reporting Goes Electronic
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Extracting Meaning from Millions of Pages
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a software engine with the capability to pull together facts by combing though more than five hundred million Web pages. Previous technologies had similar capabilities but required more guidance from the programmer. Researchers believe this program could be the starting point for developing a program that would be capable of building inference from natural-language queries.
Extracting Meaning from Millions of Pages
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Netbook Tips
Working with netbooks is a different experience from working with desktops or standard laptops. Users often look for tricks that allow them to get more performance out of these pint-sized PCs. This article presents several options including adding extra battery cells, lowering the brightness, and turning off the wireless when it is not needed.
Netbook Tips
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Verizon’s MiFi Hotspot
Verizon’s new device combines a mobile broadband adapter and a wireless router into a small battery-powered box. The device allows users to get online using a Wi-Fi enabled device if they are in range of the Verizon Wireless Mobile Network. The device allows up to five people to share the connection simultaneously and has enough power to allow users to stay online for up to four hours.
Verizon’s MiFi Hotspot
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E-Filing Fees May Keep Courthouses Open
The 1st Judicial District of Pennsylvania has seen its funding cut by $15 million and will be forced to implement court-wide furlough days. The bright spot for the court is that two fees attached to the e-filing system will limit the number of days the court has to close by five days. The fees that are charged on all credit card transactions to pay for electronic filing are estimated to bring in $1.1 million to the court in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
E-Filing Fees May Keep Courthouses Open
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Pocket Projector
BenQ Joybee GP1 Projector is a palm-sized device that can project downloaded movies and photos from personal media devices. The projector is powered by LED3 rather than a traditional lamp. The projector also boasts a color correction feature that offers a selection of five wall colors to meet the projection demands of various surfaces.
Pocket Projector
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Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Digital Natives
Digital natives, those who have grown up immersed in technology, view the technological world differently than digital immigrants, those who grew up in a time before digital technology. Are you a digital immigrant dealing with digital natives or vice versa? This article offers insights into the mindset of digital natives and highlights the different views of each of these groups.
Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Digital Natives
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“Computer, On Screen!”: A Look at Google’s Voice Recognition Software
Google’s voice-to-text technology has entered the mobile sector with voice-powered search applications for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. A recent update to Android’s Google Maps Application added this voice recognition to the application. While the technology has been more successful with the more rigid input associated with this application, the technology continues to fall short of complete accuracy.
“Computer, On Screen!”: A Look at Google’s Voice Recognition Software
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Machines to Do Court Reporting
On June 30, Utah released state court reporters from their jobs. The courts had to make cuts that eventually totaled just over $5.5 billion Of those cuts, $3.8 billion came from personnel and included eighteen court reporters, eighteen clerks, eleven administrative-level jobs, eleven and a half jobs from juvenile/probation services, four custodians, and one law clerk. After June 30, the record will be digitally gathered by court microphones and transcripts will be produced from the tapes by certified reporters.
Machines to Do Court Reporting
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$100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
Open-source education software developed for the $100 laptop can now be loaded onto a USB stick to give old PCs and Macs a new interface and custom educational software. Walter Bender, former president of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project, founded Sugar Labs, a company that promotes this open-source interface, called Sugar, and education software. Sugar Labs will be deploying the software at an elementary school in Boston and plans on releasing an improved version of the software at the end of 2009.
$100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
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NCRA's Tech Tracker is a service to NCRA members, and provides a digest of recent news items relevant to the profession. The views expressed in the cited articles are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of NCRA.